from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

They quit.

Walked over in Dallas, now crushed in St. Louis, the good ship Oiler rolls into Detroit on Wednesday at its nadir, one day before American Thanksgiving and as far away from the playoffs as it is from an identity forged last season.

The Edmonton Oilers were not remotely competitive in an 8-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues Tuesday, and the saddest part? They quit.

That’s right. Quit.

We watched, took some notes, and offer you these wholly negative takeaways on a pre-season favourite whose season is circling the bowl:

continued, includes video of Todd McLellan post-game...

from Bruce McGurdy of the Edmonton Journal,

“Let’s face it: the goaltender has to be better, the defencemen have to be better, the forwards have to be better, the coaches have to be better…”

Famous last words before Tuesday’s game from Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan, who along with his charges went on to put up a great big oh-fer-four with four strikeouts in the great baseball city of St. Louis, Missouri. The “Show Me” State, they call it; well, all the Oilers showed me was a flat-out terrible performance. This fish stank from the head down as the Oilers were out-coached, out-played and out-competed in every aspect of the game by a vastly superior opponent. The Blues owned this one from the outset, and only a sloppy third period where the hosts (correctly) recognized it was “point night” did the Oilers strike with some late, meaningless tallies. Nowhere near enough of them though in an 8-3 beatdown which was even worse than that ugly score indicates.

continued

Highlights of the game can be watched below...